


At Parting

by El Staplador (elstaplador)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Bittersweet, F/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:26:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27132460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elstaplador/pseuds/El%20Staplador
Summary: It's Yuuri's last night at home. Where would he go but Ice Castle Hasetsu? And who would be there but Yuuko?
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Nishigori Yuuko
Kudos: 8
Collections: Rare Ships!!! on BINGO 2020





	At Parting

**Author's Note:**

> This assumes that Yuuri goes away to train elsewhere in Japan before being taken on by Celestino in Detroit. 
> 
> Takeshi isn't mentioned in this story.

In his last few days in Hasetsu, everything seemed twice as bright and alive and colourful as it ever had before. The future pulsated with excited potential; the past shimmered with a powerful nostalgia. The streets reproached him for thinking of leaving them; the trees wished him well on his way.

He found himself walking around town, trying to memorise the road signs and the shop windows, the skyline, the line of the bridge, the smell of the ocean.

It was inevitable that he’d end up at Ice Castle Hasetsu.

Yuuko was on the ice, and her shift would have finished half an hour ago. Perhaps she waiting for him. Her cheeks were flushed; she must have been skating quite energetically. When she saw him, she glided straight over to the barrier to greet him. ‘I thought you’d come here,’ she said as he stepped onto the ice to join her. ‘Before the, you know...’

He knew. Soon they would go on to Yu-topia for the grand farewell banquet. Soon his father would drink quite a lot and make a speech and Minako-sensei would drink rather more and make a speech, and his mother would reprove both of them gently and feed everybody far too much. Yuuri would be excruciatingly embarrassed.

It was tempting to stay here, at the cool, calming centre of the ice, but the ice was the one thing that he wasn’t leaving behind. He’d probably never live in a town without an ice rink.

Yuuko, though...

He glanced at her, and she grinned. Then she whistled a few bars of music. Yuuri knew it immediately: it was the opening of _At Parting_ , the first of Victor Nikiforov’s programs they’d ever learned together. He hunched himself over in the starting pose, unable to see Yuuko from where he was, but knowing from the sound of her skates scraping on the ice when she straightened up and launched into the program. He was right there with her. _That wide arc up to the far end, Ina Bauer, Axel right in front of where the judges would have been, that awkward little transition that had taken them months to master, flying sit spin..._ Even after all these years, they both knew it perfectly. They did not need the music; the sound of each other’s skates, each other’s breath, was enough.

Yuuri kept the final camel spin going for a second or so longer, just because he could. Then he glided over to Yuuko and offered her his hand. She looked surprised, but pleased. They’d always skated side by side, never thought to try so much as a lift. But why not? Why not, now?

She was wearing thin, knitted, fingerless gloves; the contrast between the springiness of the wool and the smoothness of her skin was striking. Why had Yuuri never done this before?

He sped up a little. She followed his pace, and they settled into a swift, steady one-two rhythm, shadowing the edge of the rink, hand in hand, going nowhere in particular, just enjoying each other’s company.

‘It’ll be so strange without you,’ she said.

‘I’ll come back. Often.’ He’d been telling himself that a lot, lately, knowing that it probably wasn’t true.

‘Perhaps you will, at first. But what if you have to go abroad to train?’

‘There’ll be holidays, the summer break...’ He wanted it to be true, he really did.

‘I think life is going to take you further away than that.’ She shook her head, smiling. ‘You have to do this. Of course you do. We’re all so proud of you, Yuuri.’

She reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips, and then, almost before he knew what had happened, she had let go of his hand and sped over to the gap in the barrier. He blinked, and she was out of sight: sitting down, he supposed, unlacing her skates.

He put a hand to his lips, wondering if they really were tingling, whether it was anything more than chill and surprise, if they were. Wondering if Yuuko expected anything more, would have wanted anything more even if it were possible. But it wasn’t possible; they both knew that.

Still with his fingers at his mouth, Yuuri followed Yuuko’s tracings. He was reassured to see her look up when he reached the gate. There was a tiny, self-conscious smile on her face. He understood. Skating had brought them together. It seemed right that it was the only thing that would break them apart.


End file.
